New Recycling Bins!

Let's give a big thanks to Debie Torres for bringing in recycling bins for our bottles and soda cans!! One is located in the lunch room and one is located in the staff lounge.

Take Note

Remember Him?

Please join me in welcoming Jordan Mendola back to QUEST. Jordan will serve as our new immersion sub starting on Monday, January 29th. Jordan was formerly Carol Jones' student teacher.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness. Our UPK teacher noticed the focusing and attending issues our youngest learners were coming to school with each day.  As part of the solution, she has infused mindfulness strategies into her class.

She also has a love, and talent, for writing. Her new blog captures her adventures with mindfulness and is worth the look. Awesome work, Mrs. Neu! CHECK OUT THE BLOG!

Finalizing our Values

Based on the survey, and all the work that was done leading up to it, our values would look like this:




Core Values(values that are here already, very clear--we can still improve upon and should continue to make a focus): 

Community, Collaboration, Uniqueness (it is unique that it is the only value that starts with a U), Caring, Commitment




Aspirational Values (Values that we may have small pockets of, but should allow to be a future push): 

Progressiveness, Mindfulness



As a team, please provide me with a final stamp of approval before we begin to advertise, recognize where they exist, and infuse into current systems.I'd like to hear from specialists and special areas as well--please include SRP staff you work with in the discussion.  Please have your admin. team person provide me with a thumbs up or thumbs down by next Friday. Once I have all thumbs up, I will: 

• Share with families in the February Q + A
• Challenge poles to take pictures of these values in action
• Be printing these pictures, with the values written over them to hang around the school

Jose Joe's fundraiser

Looking Ahead

The Journey Begins

I left Tuesday's CIA feeling optimistic, knowing that we have the right people on this bus. You all displayed open-mindedness and the smarts to make this RtI shift a potential reality for us in the future. I was impressed. 

Take a moment to look at the last slide. We get it! 

RtI represents a shift--one that this school will do well with. After the meeting I had a handful of people come up to me hungry for more, and some had ideas of how they would like to support an intervention time at their level. I love and appreciate the energy that I am seeing, but more than that I am glad that people are already seeing the merit in RtI. 

Take a look at what the Hattie research says about RtI. As a reminder, Hattie does a meta-analysis, which means he looks at all studies on a topic to draw his conclusions. To break this down for you further, anything over .4 falls in the zone of desired effect, meaning it has the largest impact on student learning. Below, in the green, are some of those higher leverage approaches. As you can see, RtI is off the charts.  

This year, all we have to do is learn about RtI. That's it. Any potential change should be navigated together, be measured, and be implemented with our kids in mind. We will get there, but for right now,  I am committed to us being learners --we can worry about the next logical step at the end of this year. Read on your own, spend some time researching, begin looking for videos online...check out some of the posts that will be coming on the blog. Be an inquirer and open-minded to new learning, but most importantly, always remember that a big reason we will do well with this kind of shift is because we know how to serve kids TOGETHER. That is what makes me the most hopeful. 

Awesome week, QUEST. Keep pluggin'. 

Library News

http://questrockstar.pbworks.com/w/page/92223612/2018%20%20Library%20February%20News

World Read Aloud Day 2018. February 1st is DRESS LIKE YOUR FAVORITE BOOK CHARACTER DAY! 

The morning meeting on Jan 29th is being moved to Thursday, Feb 1st so we can gather  together for World Read Aloud Day.  It will be a normal morning meeting length with Mr. Warren sharing a readaloud in honor of this day.  Intermediate specials will begin on Thursday at the same time that they usually begin on Wednesday. If you want to register so your classroom is on the map, it takes 30 seconds.  I added us as a whole school as well.  http://www.litworld.org/wrad   

We are asking that all kids dress up as their favorite BOOK CHARACTER on February 1st!  Posters will be put up around the building and we will advertise on social media.   FYI February 1st is also Harry Potter ReadAloudDay to honor JK Rowling and her cast of characters that have changed the world and brought reading alive for many children and adults alike.  

Sarah Weeks is coming on Wed March 7th.    ORDER FORM here 

There are three sessions:

 

9:15-10:00  Elementary 

10:15-11:00 Intermediate

2:15-3:00 Primary and Kindergarten 

Here is Destiny Collection of all Sarah Week's books and a few videos.  I will be doing a mini author study with all Kindergarten and Primary.  If you would like to come down for a booktalk as an Elem. or Inter. class lmk! https://collections.follettsoftware.com/collection/5a663eab0e44a600117f9472?h=199ab9ad2130e01e04dbb8c7684a2c1cda339e4b6e789f34d262236bf3eb8f49

PETER BROWN ONE SCHOOL ONE BOOK IS A GO!  

Family Literacy Night  Thursday, April 12 at 6 pm

Please sign up for a booth on this google doc if you are able to join us!

  

Please let me know if you would like to read and record a chapter of Wild Robot Escapes for our audio blog so I can assign your chapters.  You can  record on an or any device you prefer and upload it to this location:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1O49ifVPCgKPcPYR_EyCg_Ri9jxhbEGDq?usp=sharing

Intermediate Sarah Weeks Book Club will start Wed. February 28th.  Students who have signed up will have a short dessert Q and A session with the author!

READ ACROSS AMERICA/DR SEUSS DAY is March 2nd! http://www.seussville.com/Educators/educatorReadAcrossAmerica.ph

LEARN 360 is NO LONGER!  Please login to your account using your office 360 login!  http://libguides.monroe2boces.org/slshome/media

 

Enjoy an Awesome Weekend

You've earned it!